ABSTRACT
The Enlightenment as referred to today is retrospective concept that historical periodization has allowed to demarcate. The technical difficulty of studying the ocean-space, and especially such challenges as the so-called longitude problem, the discovery of currents and large-scale water movements, and the mapping of earth's magnetism are three examples that highlight further challenges of knowledge production about the ocean-space. Equal to the magnitude and importance of the map that Franklin included is the deductive process that led to Franklin's assertive drawing. The importance of knowledge for knowledge's sake appears in the eyes of von Humboldt as a justifiable purpose and a praiseworthy way of spending one's time. The history of the magnetic compass is a long and convoluted one which bears numerous elements of legend. The respective cases of nonexistent islands, coordinates, ocean currents and magnetism in the Atlantic Ocean were analyzed against the background of Enlightenment geography where the ocean-space emerges as a scientific space of circulation.
